


Bad Things Happen Bingo Ficlets

by Sleepy_fan



Series: bthb [3]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Implied Child Abuse, M/M, Violence, painful transformation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-01-13 01:34:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18458747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sleepy_fan/pseuds/Sleepy_fan
Summary: Wherein characters suffer. Enjoy!





	1. Empathic Healing

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posted on Tumblr

Dream had just come back from the village, carrying several books that he was pretty sure that Nightmare would love - along with a small satchel of groceries. While neither he nor Nightmare strictly needed to eat, the guardian of positivity loved to cook - and he delighted in the fact that the monster food he made, depending on what he was concentrating on and how much magic he allowed to go into the dish that he was making, had different effects. There was also the fact that Nightmare was… He had rather suddenly become quite *clumsy* since the villagers started to regularly visit the two of them. Of the two of them, his older brother had always been the more graceful of the two of them, but lately…

Lately Nighty had been withdrawing further into himself, hiding in the branches of their mother when the villagers came to speak to them… Dream wished that he wouldn’t, as he really hoped that the mortal beings could see just how wonderful and caring Nightmare was, and that they would stop with the awful rumors that persisted that the guardian of negativity was cruel or harsh. He really wasn’t! But… Dream could guess that the other didn’t like the glares and comments muttered under the humans’ and monsters’ breath, pitched at a volume that they intended for his brother to hear, but not for him.

It caused the guardian of Positivity to bristle a little, but Dream genuinely had no idea how to handle the situation. When he tried to begin to bring up the hostility that the villagers had towards Nightmare, the other guardian would shut down - or dully ask if he believed what they said about him. Not that Dream ever did believe them when they said awful things about his older brother and the golden skeleton told the other so. Which cheered the other up in the past… But the whispered *comments* and his brother’s supposed clumsiness was starting to get worse, and Dream  had been seriously considering asking the villagers to leave.

While their attention on him was… Flattering at times, and he delighted talking to people, the guardian was genuinely worried about his older brother’s health - and there had been several instances of beings travelling from further from their world, staying briefly at the inn at the village… And then trying to steal an apple from the tree. Not that anyone ever succeeded - between the two of them, the emotional guardians were capable and effective fighters when the situation called for it. Dream was going to talk to Nightmare before taking such a drastic step, however. And he knew that he would have to word his arguments very carefully, as he knew that Nightmare night not take his idea very well - protesting that he was perfectly fine “and to please continue to enjoy talking to the mortals, little brother. I’m fine and I want you to be happy.”

But… But Dream knew that part of his happiness depended on Nightmare’s own - as well as his safety and continued well being, and if… As he suspected, but Nightmare never confirmed - that the villagers were… were hurting his older brother, things would have to change. Although why Nightmare was letting them do so, instead of defending himself, Dream could only guess. Maybe Nighty thought that things would only get worse? Or… or that he would take the villagers’ side over his own brother’s? The Guardian of positivity mentally shook himself, focusing on his surroundings and pushing himself to smile - eagerly anticipating the way that Nighty’s eyelights would widen - and maybe even turn into stars - when he showed the other the books he’d bought for the other.

The… the injuries that his older brother kept getting was another reason for the food that he had purchased, as monster food healed injuries instantly, although how much depended on the quality and size of the dish that one ate. Not that Dream had told Nightmare that one of the main reasons why he started cooking a bunch more - and keeping the food around their small home, rather than giving it away to those who came to visit them - was for the other’s benefit. He knew that Nightmare ate the food, and while Dream did hope that it was simply because he enjoyed the taste… the positive spirit was worried that it was due to the clumsiness Nighty was suffering from in recent years.

Dream was most of the way home, when he heard angry shouting. His gaze snapped up and he froze for several seconds, staring as he saw a crowd of a dozen monsters and humans, all crowded around something - or someone.

A tall, tan and grey bunny monster jeered “That’s right! You fucking take it, you miserable piece of shit! You’re to blame for all of our pain and woe! My datemates broke up with me and it’s your fault.” the monster struck out at something and an agonized cry came up from the center of the circle.

“Yeah! It’s your fault I-I’m still grieving for my pet rock after it died years ago!” a light haired, freckled human hissed, striking out at the same being. Another, slightly weaker cry from the center of the circle of angry beings came up, this time followed by a heart-stoppingly familiar pulse of magic.

Dream felt himself drop everything in his hands as he instantly teleported to where they were standing, throwing his arms out wide as he tried to shield his brother, who was curled up in a defensive ball, his clothes dirty and what he could see of the other’s hands (which was the only uncovered part of his older brother that he could see) were covered in cracks that from which his magic was bleeding “Stop! Stop it right now!” Dream demanded, tears gathering in the corners of his eye sockets.

The group of assailants all stopped moving, their eyes widening in shock and uncertainty. The bunny monster who had spoken earlier stammered out “D-dream? Th-th-this isn’t what it looks like! H-he… th-that demon provoked us.”

Dream glared a little at the speaker, doing his best to stay calm, despite the fact that he bristled at the other’s insult. His normally warm and kind voice had a hard edge to it that they had never heard before “Nightmare is no more a demon than I am. I have known him all of my life, which has been far longer than any of yours.  You will apologize to him for injuring him and then you will leave. I will be speaking with the leaders of the village to make sure that you will be punished appropriately for striking an unarmed person who did not fight back against all of you. Depending on what is… I may ask them to banish you permanently from the village, and to never return to this area. I am speaking to all of you who were involved on the unprovoked assault on Nightmare.”

“I… B-but Dream ple-” One of the other monsters - a bear started, their eyes widening in shock and dismay, their ears pressed flat to their head, voice trembling with fear and anxiety “P-please d-don’t send us away f-from you! W-we couldn’t s-stand that…”

“You did not always live here, and the village exists only so long as the inhabitants are not a threat to the tree of feelings or to either one of us.” Dream snapped back, golden eyelights shining brightly with righteous anger, his voice still uncharacteristically sharp and harsh. “Leave us now, or once my brother is healed, I will insist that all of you leave the village for the rest of your lives.” They fled the scene of their crime and as soon as Dream was certain that no one would immediately show up to potentially attack Nightmare, he knelt down beside his other half, his hands immediately alight with green magic “N-nighty are you awake? Please say something!” He desperately wanted to ask why the other didn’t try to defend himself, but he didn’t want Nightmare to think that he blamed the other for others hurting him.

“I… D-dream? Th-they’re r-really violent and I don’t want you to get hurt…” Nightmare groaned out, his violet eye lights barely lit and shattered.

“There’s no one here but the two of us, I sent the idiots who hurt you away from here. I… H-how often has this happened? Why… why didn’t you tell me?” Dream asked, his voice shaking a little as he concentrated on healing the other, pushing past his stress and worry. Healing magic required calm feelings and a steady stream of magic.

“Because you… You like talking to them and I… Th-they’re hardly ever that bad… I d-don’t know why they h-hate me b-but I want you to be happy.” The negative guardian explained, shakily reaching up and brushing something warm and wet from Dream’s face “Hey… D-dreamy don’t cry? I’m okay… I’m okay, I promise.”

“B-but I’m happiest when you’re happy, Nightmare… a-and you’ve been suffering for stars know h-how long and I’ve been so terribly selfish and ignoring your needs and health. No more. I will speak to the village elders to get everyone who’s been hurting you banished from the area. I don’t care if I have to hurt them a bit in order to g-get it through their dumb mortal heads that I r-really mean it.” Dream promised, filled with determination and a fierce desire protect the other “Please tell me the n-names of everyone who’s been hurting you. I mean it.” It was getting more difficult for him to heal the other - but he was going to take the other’s pain away. He needed to focus.

“I… Dream…” Nightmare began, looking away from him, seemingly unsure as to how to respond. “I don’t… They don’t react well to my a-aura, I think. But if you try to p-push them away I… I fear that they might try to g-go after me more for… For telling you about it and for twisting your mind with my evil ways and dark words or s-something like that that.”

“If they can’t handle both of our auras, then they shouldn’t live so close to us! We’ve lived her for much, much longer and I don’t care what they want. We were created to protect the Tree and one another. I’ve failed to protect you in the past… but I promise you Nightmare, I’ll do better. Starting with making the villagers leave. We’ve had to deal with more greedy beings trying to take from the tree since the village started to grow in size, and started to attract more of the mortals who live elsewhere here.” Dream answered back fiercely, shaking his head a little, frustrated that he was crying more - he didn’t want to make Nightmare feel worse than he already was!… And he just stopped using green healing magic, despite the fact that the other was still bruised - though his bones had stopped leaking magic. There was one other thing he could do - but if Nightmare found out that he did it again… The other would be unhappy. But he’d just have to be careful, and he did just go out to buy groceries, so it should be fine, right?

“I… No you didn’t fail in your duties! I hid what the villagers were doing from you because I didn’t want you to worry or be upset about it… Because I know that you like being able to interact with others… that you enjoy the attention that they give you.” Nightmare responded, voice shaking a little “And thanks for the healing, I’m feeling a lot better now.”

“I just checked your stats, I know that you’re at less than half of your HP, Nighty. Just… Give me a minute to collect myself and I’ll finish healing you, okay?” Dream responded, closing his eyes and taking in a couple of calming breaths, feeling terribly guilty for feeling so out of sorts. Nightmare was the one who was injured, after all.

Nightmare lightly touched one of his shoulders, a worried frown appearing on his face “Okay… It’s not like the body I’m inhabiting is in danger of dusting, if you want, we could go back for the groceries I saw that you were bringing home earlier and we could cook together? and I promise I’ll eat as much of it as you want me to.”

Dream shook his head a little, a determined expression flashing across his face, calmer now, though knowing that he wasn’t going to be able to access more true healing magic for a little while. Not that Nightmare needed to know that “Yeah but… Let me fix you up before we cook, alright?” green-tinged golden magic surrounded the negative guardian for several seconds, before fading away.

Nightmare blinked, a warm and grateful smile appearing on his face as he hugged the other back, saying gratefully “Thank you for healing me, Dream. I… I’m sorry for hiding this from you, I just… I wanted you to be happy!”

Dream smiled back, brightly, and very glad that he was able to stop himself from wincing - as Nightmare had hugged his ribs tightly - which was one of the places where he had caused the injuries that he had transferred from Nightmare to himself. He transferred the rest of the damage to his legs, making sure that he didn’t overdo it and break his own legs - as Nightmare would notice if he was limping “I’m happiest with you, when both of us are genuinely happy, Nightmare. That’s always been true, and it’ll always be true. Let’s go home, alright? And we can talk about how to deal with the villagers bullying you, okay?”

Nightmare grimaced a little, letting the other go as he set off for their home “… You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

“Nope! I want you to be happy and safe.” Dream responded, feeling a slight trickle of magic down one of his legs, grabbing a monster sweet from one of his pockets and popping it in his mouth. It wasn’t nearly enough to heal all that it was done, but it helped “Hey, I’ve got some candy in my pockets, do you want one?”

“I’m fine- they’re usually far too sweet for me - besides I don’t need the HP bump - even if monster candy only gives you ten.” Nightmare said with a shake of his head, walking over and picking up the discarded bag of groceries, glancing through it, smiling a little “This all looks delicious.”

“I’m glad that you like it - let’s head home.” Dream responded with a bright smile as he took Nightmare’s free hand with one of his own “We should walk - it’s such a nice day…”

“Sounds good to me.” Nightmare responded with a small smile.


	2. Blackmail

Dream was just about to call Ink in and brief him on a mission when he heard the distinctive sound of a trans-dimensional portal open. He knew that none of his people were coming or leaving at this time, and as he hadn’t kidnapped Nightmare, Error wasn’t coming to rescue him. Which left only one other being in the multiverse who Dream was aware of who could open portals - and open them against the wards that prevented such things from occurring without his permission. The CEO tensed up, turning off his eye lights for a couple of moments as he centered himself - the last thing that he needed to do was show weakness in front of the monster he could sense walking towards his office in the hallway. He straightened a little, making sure that his desk was completely neat as he continued to go through his paperwork, and hoped that he exuded an air of confident calm.

The CEO had been waiting for Blue to come back after their… Negotiations a week ago, but the manipulative criminal had been nowhere to be seen since - and Dream had been increasingly suspicious, given that one of the demands was that they spend an hour together everyday - provided that one or both of them weren’t busy doing something. The fact that Blue hadn’t tried to capitalize on the time didn’t likely mean much good. Not that Dream had been making any great efforts to try to figure out what the other was doing or where he might be, as if Blue vanished from this multiverse entirely, the CEO was quite certain that no one would mourn him - not unless they didn’t know his true nature at least.

He heard the door to his office open, and briefly glanced up, deliberately not allowing himself to tense up as he saw Blue stroll in through the door, a broad grin on the other’s face. “What do you want, Blue?” He asked, going back to his paperwork - trying to read through the report, what he’d been doing with it having left his mind entirely, and starting to re-read the beginning of the report, glad that he was still on the first page.

“Well, you did promise to spend time with me - and I do apologize for not immediately showing you said attention - but some of my… Contacts needed help, and I’ve been very busily helping them for the past week. I hope that I didn’t worry you! Oh, but I think that we really should that I need to make up those seven hours of time that was lost last week, in addition to today’s hour!” blue responded, a bright smile appearing on his face as he strolled over to Dream and hopped up onto the desk, pushing aside a neatly stacked pile of papers, leaning over to read what the CEO was working on. “You should definitely stop doing all of this boring paperwork and have some fun with me, Dream~!”

“… There was nothing in our agreement that time that was missed by either party due to not having the time that day would be accrued and stored up for later use.” Dream responded stiffly, looking away from Blue and leaning slightly away from the other.

“Aww, but it’s not as if our little agreement is in writing and I believe I’m the one who can change the terms… So I think that we really should be able to catch up on all the time that we’ve lost last week.” Blue answered back, shaking his head a little as he lightly touched the other’s chin with a couple of deceptively gentle fingers, exerting just enough pressure to cause Dream to look at him “Inform your people that you’re going to be busy elsewhere for the rest of the day, and come with me.”

“I would prefer it if you did not touch me.” Dream responded stiffly, his body tensing up unhappily despite himself. He really didn’t want to go anywhere with the other - but he also would rather this dangerous criminal not be within JR’s headquarters if he wasn’t captured for longer than absolutely necessary. “I will send messages to those who need to know that I will be leaving for the day. I will be bringing my personal phone with me, and if an emergency comes up, you do realize that I will respond, yes?”

“Of course! I’d be delighted to help with whatever potential disaster you’d be helping to clean up - and as I mentioned, last week I had… Matters to attend to that caused me to not have the time to spend with you. But now I do~!” Blue responded with a bright grin “And I promise that I won’t touch you too much. But how can I resist touching you a little? You’re one of the most eligible bachelors in the multiverse… Or at least everyone believes you’re a bachelor. Whether or not you actually are is… Something I am rather curious about, as your bond with Nightmare is entirely unique, from what I have seen. Are the two of you mates as well?”

“I… I don’t see why I should give you that information. You already know far too much about the connection I have with Nightmare as it is.. Besides, the answer that is complicated and difficult to explain.” Dream responded stiffly, pausing for a moment before responding “Not in the least because the connection between the two of us is unique.” Unless there were other guardian spirits, but if they were, Dream had yet to find them. He certainly wasn’t going to volunteer any more information for Blue to use against him.

“Oh well. I suppose since this is the very beginning of the two of us actually getting to know one another very well, I won’t be upset that you’re being so shy… I’m sure that you’ll come to trust me quite deeply, though.” Blue purred as he shifted closer to Dream on the other’s desk, one of his hands tracing the shape of the guardian’s jaw, the other coming up to rest on one of Dream’s shoulders. “So are you going to be sending out those messages soon, or are we going to be spending more time in your very boring office? Then again, if you need a hand with the paperwork, I’d be delighted to help you read through some of them.” He reached for the top paper on the stack as he spoke, his eye lights sparkling brightly with interest.

Dream grabbed the other’s wrist swiftly, sending a narrow-eyed glare the other’s way “No. I will be sending the messages promptly. Do not touch anything in this office… Please.” He added the last word at the end to soften the order into a request, unsure as to the exact nature of the mercurial outcode and not wanting to test the other’s patience at the moment. With his other hand, (as Dream didn’t trust the other not to start rifling through the papers just to further irritate him) the CEO rifled through one of his drawers, pulling out a stack of magical post it notes and writing a quick note, informing his lieutenants that he would be out of JR for the day - and if anything urgent happened to call him, but otherwise leave him be. He then folded the  notes into little swans and, with a little bit of his magic, sent them flying. “There, the notes have been sent. Now, where is it that you want to bring me to?”

Blue’s smile widened a little, his eye lights following the graceful movements of the paper birds before purring “Well, first we are going to be going to an Outertale timeline - you’re entirely too recognizable in the outfit you’re wearing… Can you hide those wings of yours? As lovely as they are, they make you stand out.” He leaned in closer to Dream as he spoke, taking the hand that had been on the CEO’s jaw and ever so lightly touched one of the other’s wings.

This caused Dream to jolt out of his chair and jerk away from the other - he didn’t always have his wings solid, but he’d been flying earlier that morning and hadn’t bothered to make them intangible - and the sudden, unwanted touch had startled him - not in the least because the spot that Blue had touched was rather sensitive. “Do not touch my wings. Please. Especially without warning.” Dream growled, his wings flaring out behind him.

“Noted. I hadn’t meant to upset you strongly.” Blue lightly apologized, his voice low and coaxing, sliding off of the desk and taking a couple of small steps back, his hands at his sides.

Dream didn’t believe the other for a moment, but he was cautiously optimistic that the other knew not to push him too far. “I see. Your apology has been noted.” But not in the least bit accepted… Not in the least bit because Dream was quite certain that the other didn’t mean a word that he just said. Despite himself, the CEO folded his arms over his chest, his wings still partially flared out behind him and he somewhat reluctantly answered the other’s question “Yes, I can hide my wings, though it is easier for me to hide them beneath a cloak, as shifting to an alternative form is… Can be challenging, and if I am startled in that alternative form, my wings will appear whether or not I want them to, as they are part of me. And I have clothes of my own I can change into that is not my standard outfit for when I travel throughout the multiverse.”

“Awww… But I think that you’d look really fetching in some clothes of my choice! Please, Dream, for your new buddy Blue?” The outcode cajoled, moving closer to the CEO again, clearly unwilling to let this go.

“… Fine.” Dream responded, deliberately forcing his wings to lower and fold behind his back. He walked around the desk to stand next to Blue “As you’re the one who knows which Outertale we are going to, please open the portal. Although I’m not entirely sure how you are able to open portals, since you don’t have the clearance to do so with the wards.”

“I’m an outcode, and like Error, my magic can be quite destructive in a way that a normal monster’s or human’s isn’t. So things like wards don’t really keep me out of anywhere I really want to be. Including wards as strong and well-rounded as the ones here.” Blue responded with a small and utterly unrepentant shrug. “So are you ready to go now, or is there something pressing that you need to do?”

Dream would rather do anything but go anywhere with Blue - but the CEO had a suspicion that the longer he tried to drag out the two of them leaving to go… Do whatever it was that the outcode wanted, the worse things were going to be doing with “I am ready as I’ll ever be to go somewhere with you.” He didn’t even try to hide some of the irritation and dislike of doing this from his voice, giving into the desire to glower at the floor - in lieu of glaring at Blue.

“You know, that’s a really hurtful thing to say… But I think you’re feeling a little bit grumpy about having to be torn away from your work, so I’ll forgive you for now. But I do hope that you cheer up quickly as if you’re such a grump for the entire day, I’m afraid that I don’t think that I’ll be terribly satisfied and we’ll just have to spend even more time together tomorrow~!” Blue responded, the smile on his face dropping a little as he turned to look directly at Dream “And while I understand that you’re a terribly busy and important figure in the multiverse, you really should make sure to take time for friends! Especially such a good friend like me.”

Dream closed his eyes for a couple of moments, catching the implied threat, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, so it didn’t sound like the angry and frustrated sigh that he wanted to release. “I see. Well I will certainly do my best to be a… Pleasant companion, however I would like to inform you that my ideal day off is to spend it reading quietly…” Quietly under the tree of feeling, while listening to the increasingly ridiculous stories that Nightmare would tell of the pranks and schemes that he had plotted against the villagers who tried to torment him in various different ways… And occasionally point out the flaws in the other’s plans or scold the other for coming up with something utterly ridiculous.

“Oh, don’t worry~! Some of our day will be spent in quiet companionship - but there is this lovely festival in a swap ‘verse that is ever so much fun, especially if you’ve got a good friend to come with you to said festival.” Blue responded with a bright grin, stepping closer to Dream and wrapping his arms around the taller skeleton, resting his chin on one of the other’s shoulders “Now that we’re both ready to go, I’ll open a portal.”

Before Dream could do or say anything, he heard the sounds of a dimensional portal opening up, as the ground beneath him literally vanished and the both of them fell through it, the portal closing as soon as Dream’s head cleared it, darkness swallowing up the both of them, causing the winged guardian to panic a little as his wings flared out instinctively, trying to keep them from falling.


	3. GB AU part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream finds himself in a darker AU, strapped to a table, with an Evil Gaster starting to do a horrible experiment on him.

“Wh-why are you doing this?” Dream asked, struggling a little in the restraints that he had woken up in. The positivity guardian had been wandering through AUs, doing his best to help people when he had stumbled into a particularly low-positivity AU. He had noticed, upon entering Snowdin, that the Papyrus and Sans of the AU wasn’t living there. He had also heard the monsters gossiping in Grillbys - that the head royal scientist, W.D. Gaster had become more mysterious and reclusive in the past couple of years. Some Sanses and Papyri were related to Gasters, others were adopted and some… Well, at the time, Dream had hoped that this was an AU with a good - or at least a well-meaning Gaster.

Pinned down with magical restraints as the scientist stared down impassively from the operating table he’d been strapped to, the other’s eye lights cold and harsh proved otherwise. Still, the doctor had underestimated his magical strength - as he could still use his magic some, and tried to reach out to the other, hoping to encourage any compassion and positive feelings that existed within the tall skeleton monster “You don’t… You don’t have to do whatever it is that you’ve kidnapped me fore. Just let me go, and I will leave you and yours alone.” He would, perhaps, talk about this AU rather loudly with Ink.. In a place that he knew that Cross and the other Bad Sanses frequented, commenting that it was such a shame that he and Ink couldn’t directly interfere with AUs and though he was terribly worried for the sans and Papyrus of that AU… there wasn’t much that he could do…

“I do not know how you came to be. There are no other skeleton monsters in the underground apart from WDG-1-S, WDG-2-P and myself. Who are you?” The Gaster demanded, his white eye lights flashing with irritation “Particularly a monster of your magical power would have been known by myself as well as the King and Queen. Yet I have never met you before. Who are you and why have you been hiding? What reason do you have from coming out of seclusion now?”

“I… I will tell you who I am, if you let me up. I’m afraid that it’s not going to make a lot of sense, and you may not believe me.” Dream responded, not wanting to explain that he was from an alternate universe to a Gaster like this - pinned down and unable to teleport away as Gasters like this… Tended to react one of a couple of different ways, and none of them meant good things for himself.

“No, I will not let you go unless you explain yourself. Besides, either of my experiments are growing like they should. Despite your slight stature and mysterious origins, you are a fully grown skeleton, and it would be a waste to simply wait for you to tell me what I want to know, when that doesn’t really matter.” Dr. Gaster responded, walking out of Dream’s line of sight before coming back again, holding a glowing syringe.

Dream had no idea what was in the syringe, but he doubted that it was anything good. Trying to suppress the panic clawing at his soul, He tried to use his magic on the other - to force the other into a calm and positive state - in the hopes that the Gaster would be more amenable to letting him go. White hot pain shot through his body from the restraints on his wrists and ankles, causing the guardian of positivity to arch off of the cold metal table and scream in pain, twisting and shuddering, and refusing to sob or cry, despite pain that he was in, not wanting to show more weakness than he already had to this Gaster.

The doctor stared down at him for a couple of moments, a mildly concerned expression appearing on his face before the other’s face smoothed out again into the impassive calm of before “Fascinating. You appear to have empathic magic of some kind. Were you trying to pull on my emotions? Perhaps manipulate me into letting you go? Nevertheless, I will be curious to see how your powers will translate once the serum changes you. Now, summon your soul.”

“W-why would I show you m-my soul?” Dream responded, shifting away a little from the scientist and the ominously glowing syringe. The last thing he wanted to do was to show the other his soul - as it was shaped like the golden apple he’d consumed in a desperate attempt to keep it from Nightmare many centuries ago. He really didn’t need the other monster focused on him any more than the other already was.

“Because it will aid in the transformation process. I cannot initiate a Fight with you, as otherwise I will be unable to directly interact with your soul.” Gaster answered, raising the syringe and positioning it over the guardian’s chest, right above where his soul was located, safely hidden behind a cage of bones. “Now, do as I say.”

“No!” Dream responded defiantly, golden eye lights flashing with determination. He wasn’t going to help this cruel monster, even if it was going to make things worse for him. “I have no reason to do what you want, and I don’t care that you’re the head royal scientist and the monsters of this world worship the ground you walk on. I know what you truly are. A cold, cruel being who torments those who cannot fight back against you for your own twisted sense of pride and delight.”

“I do what I do in order to protect monster kind! WDG-1-S and 2-P will be powerful weapons to be used against the humans once we reach the surface, but for now they are young and weak. You will be the proof of concept once you’ve finished turning.” Gaster responded “Even if your main powers are empathic in nature, it will be interesting to see what offensive capabilities you do have and how they will manifest in your new form. I suggest that you stay still, or you will cause unnecessary damage to your soul.” With that, the scientist shoved the very sharp point of the needle through Dream’s sternum, piercing his soul.

The guardian flinched, but forced himself to stay still as the contents of the syringe were slowly injected into him, the foreign magic burning and painful enough to force tears of pain to trickle treacherously from his eye sockets. Dream’s breathing was breathing fast and raggedly, his body trembling violently as he desperately stopped himself from screaming in pain, not wanting to give the sadistic scientist the satisfaction of reacting in pain. The horrific burning sensations spread from his soul along his ribcage and down his spine. He could feel the foreign magic spread inch by excruciating inch along his arms and down his legs, and Dream forced himself to stay silent, even as he instinctively began to thrash and twist in the restraints, stubbornly staying silent.

Once the magic had spread to every part of his body, Dream felt his vision begin to blur and darken… He could hear the distant sounds of someone screaming in abject pain - the kinds of screams that Nightmare had let out as the other had been forced to turn into the tentacled, corrupted being he currently was. The screams started to turn into pained howls, and he distantly heard the sounds of clothing tearing and ripping - and… Something was pulling on his arms and wrists as he continued to thrash blindly, unable to see. He felt himself shifting and warping, his form changing against his will. Dream could feel his bones twisting and shifting, his joints shifting and warping, forcing pained howls to leave his lips as he desperately thrashed and fought against the restraints as he desperately tried to understand what was going on.

Once the fiery magic faded after what felt like an agonizing eternity later, a terrified sob left his lips, but all Dream heard was a whimper of some sort of animal - a dog, perhaps? The Guardian force himself to turn on his eye lights again, once again finding himself in the lab still, but the table  he’d been strapped to was broken, the restraints shattered. He was on his hands and feet, and tensed when he heard the scientist speak.

“Fascinating… You are much smaller than I anticipated you to be. Ah well, at least you didn’t dust from the process. Now, come WDG-3. I will bring you to your cell. Depending on how well you behave, I will introduce you to the other two subje-” The Scientist spoke, his voice loud and commanding and Dream wasn’t going to listen to him.

Dream let out a low, warning growl, feeling his tail swish low and fast behind him as he crouched before charging Dr. Gaster, leaping up and landing squarely on the other’s chest, his forepaws pinning the other’s shoulders to the ground, his back paws digging into the other’s spine. He opened his jaws, the bifurcated lower mandible widening a little as a bright, golden light gathered between his jaws, blasting the scientist moments later, the sound of the laser firing overpowering the other’s screams of pain and horror. With the threat a neutralized and twitching ball of tears, Dream ran off with a fast, easy stride, having caught the scent of frightened pups, following their subtle scent and feeling the pulse of their young souls and magic.

The positivity guardian found the pups - small and frightened, curling around one another and whimpering in confusion and fight. He let out a quiet, purring sound, pulsing his magic towards them in soothing, calming waves. The leaner and lankier one peeked at him with curious orange eyes, while the shorter, squatter pup growled a little, blue eyes glimmering with suspicion. Dream blasted the cell doors open with blue light before laying down on the floor and rolling over onto his side, showing the both of them his belly, hoping that the show of trust and submission would calm the pups.

The orange-eyed pup perked up and took several bounding steps towards Dream, followed more cautiously by the blue-eyed pup. Dream stayed laying down on his belly - despite the fact that he really just wanted to grab the pups and run as fast as he could, to run home to safety where the three of them would be safe and protected, but he didn’t want to scare the little ones more than they already were.

“{who are you?}” The blue-eyed pup asked, sniffing at him, speaking in Hands “{Never seen you before. Did He send you?}”

“{YOU’RE LIKE US! WE’VE NEVER SEEN ANYONE LIKE US BUT HIM BEFORE, BUT HE HAS TWO LEGS ALWAYS, NOT FOUR SOMETIMES.}” The orange-eyed pup added on, his tail wagging excitedly as he bounded up to the other gaster blaster beast, sniffing him curiously before happily licking his muzzle with a bright orange tongue a couple of times, excited and hopeful.

“{My name is Dream. He forced me into this form, like he forced the both of you. I can take you away from here. Bring you somewhere safe. Where He can’t ever hurt you again.}” The guardian of positivity responded, meaning what he said.

“{where would we go? it’s not like we can escape, we’ve tried before. no matter where we go in the underground, he finds us again and brings us back.}” the blue eyed pup responded, flopping on the floor near Dream, lightly batting at the tip of his tail, morose and unhappy.

“{I’m not from this universe, and I can take you from this AU so that you two will be safe from Him for the rest of your lives.}” Dream responded, knowing that his words sounded strange and fantastic, but he meant it. Even if he had to hide them in a Haventale so that Ink didn’t know that he’d taken a couple of monsters out of their home timelines, he wasn’t going to let these pups suffer.

“{how did you get here? why did you come here?}” The suspicious little Sans-pup asked, moving a little bit closer to Dream, still wary of the stranger.

“{I can create portals that allow me to move through different universes. I travel to different worlds in order to protect them from those who would cause pain, chaos and destruction.}” Dream explained honestly, still laying on his side and staying still, despite desperately wanting to nuzzle and pick up both of the pups with his magic and flee through the nearest portal. He had no idea whether or not the Gaster had other beings involved with this project and the positive guardian was unsure how long he would be able to fend them off, as the painful transformation had taken a heavy toll on him - and he was still under the effects of the sedative that had been used to knock him unconscious so that he could be taken to the lab.

“{THAT’S REALLY AMAZING! YOU MUST BE A REALLY COOL HERO! I THINK WE SHOULD GO WITH HIM, BROTHER. I DON’T LIKE THE EXPERIMENTS THAT THE SCIENTIST RUNS ON US AND I… WHILE I WANT TO BELIEVE THAT HE CAN BE BETTER, I WOULD RATHER THE BOTH OF US BE SAFE, THAN WAITING FOR HIM TO LEARN HOW TO BE BETTER.}” The Papyrus-pup responded, his voice loud and boisterous… And having definitely caught someone’s attention, as Dream could sense someone walking towards them.

“{ok, bro. it’s not like anything worse could happen to us then what’s already gone on…}” The Sans pup responded after a moment, walking over to Dream and sitting down next to the guardian. “{so how do these portal thingies work?}”

Dream stood up, answering as he did so “{I open a portal with my magic and we step through. Grab anything from your cell that you want to keep - we need to get going now, as there’s someone heading towards us and I don’t think they’d help us escape.}” With a flick of his tail, he opened a portal home.

The young Sans pup glanced briefly back into the barren cell before shaking his head “nah, there’s nothing there for either of us. C’mon bro, let’s go to our new home.”

The Pup-pyrus nodded and bounced through the portal “{WOAH! THIS PLACE LOOKS VERY DIFFERENT THAN THE LAB! COME OUTSIDE BROTHER!!}”

“{sure thing bro.}” The young Sans responded as he swiftly walked through the portal, his little claws clicking against the tile floor before stepping onto the blackened grass of the AU that Dream had opened  portal too.

Dream rushed through the portal as soon as both of the young pups were safely on the other side, closing it immediately - hearing the sound of someone calling out to them, desperately, as if to try to stop them, but the positivity guardian paid the being no mind, focused on the little ones. “{Do you two need anything to eat? Are you tired? It is safe to rest here, if you need to sleep.}”

“{sleep sounds good, but apart from that me an’ my bro are fine. the doctor had finished his awful testing on us for the day had given us something to eat before you showed up. this is a very strange part of an underground.}” The little Sans pup responded, his tail wagging a little as he joined Dream at the base of what was once a large and beautiful tree, now nothing more than a big, twisted and blackened stump.

Not that Dream had registered this, nor that the grass was black and twisted, and the sky above them was a warped, dark color. “{We’re not in any underground. In this AU, monsters and humans live in harmony. There was never a war between the two races… Now come, sleep with me. Nighty’ll be by before too long to check on us.}” There was… Something important that he seemed to have forgotten, but the guardian of positivity was just so exhausted and glad to be home with the pups who had so desperately needed to be rescued.

“{WHO OR WHAT IS NIGHTY?}” The pup-pyrus asked curiously, tilting his head a little as he walked over to where his sleepy brother and their Mysterious Rescuer were laying, cuddled together. He didn’t really want to sleep right now, but they did look cozy… And he could explore later.

“{Nighty… He’s my other half. M’ positivity guardian. He’s negativity. We balance each other out. Should be close to the tree or coming, since he’s not here.}” Dream responded with a jaw-cracking yawn as he carefully grabbed his tattered cape and draped it over the pups before curling around the both of them. The clothes he had been wearing had been almost entirely shredded - including his boots and gloves, but pieces of them still clung to his alternate form. He really hoped that Nightmare didn’t freak out at how different he looked - or at least he didn’t in a way that woke up the pups. Dream had a feeling that they’d run if his mate reacted badly, and chasing them down would be a hassle. One that he would be happy to deal with, but would rather avoid if at all possible.

“{what’s a tree?}” Sans asked curiously, yawning a little and nuzzling into his brother, a soft rumbling sound, not unlike a purr rumbling from his little chest. It was very cute, made cuter by Papyrus’ answering purr.

“{It’s a big plant. it has branches and leaves… Flowers and fruit sometimes… I’ll explain better after we’ve all rested.}” Dream promised, curling a little more around both of the small pups. It was unfortunate that he’d shrunk down in size, after he’d returned home. He was still larger than both the young Sans and Papyrus, but not by much. He yawned again and gently licked both of the pups - it was an instinctual thing - as he wanted to check the both of them over, sniffing at the both of them, satisfied that they were both healthy. He didn’t like the look of the metal plates affixed to their forearms, but he was pretty sure that he or Nightmare would be able to get them off once everyone was awake - or if it was affixed via magic, they could find a friendly Gaster to remove the plates from the children.

There was something very important pressing at the back of Dream’s conscious mind, but the guardian of positivity couldn’t place just what it was. Oh well, he’d remember after he rested.


	4. Bad Dreams [Illusionsverse 1]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream wakes up from a nightmare and is soothed by his beloved, Nightmare.

Dream yawned a little and stretched, before snuggling into the source of the familiar and warm magic of someone who he deeply trusted. A feeling of safety and security filled the guardian of positivity in ways that he hadn’t experienced since… A bit of a frown appeared on his face as he started to wake up a little bit more. There was… There was no possible way that he should feel this happy and safe. Especially since he… Since he was laying next to Nightmare. His eye lights flashed on and he froze up in shock and confusion as he stared at the sight a couple of inches from his face.

Nightmare was in the bed next to him, an arm wrapped around his waist, the other’s breathing indicating that he was sleeping, a small smile on the guardian of negativity’s face. The other was in his original, non-corrupted form, and as Dream shifted a little in his other half’s hold, they were… They were in his original room. The one in Dreamtale - before everything had gone so horribly wrong, after Nightmare had silently suffered from the villagers’ abuse and cruelty for uncounted decades… Unable to take it and snapping, while he had been naively oblivious to the suffering of the one being in the entirety of their home timeline that he should have been most focused on.

The other shifted a little and woke up, violet (not cyan! which meant that the other was uncorrupted, rather than having shape-shifted into this form for whatever reason) eye lights focusing him, a worried frown appearing on the other’s face as he asked “Dream, what’s wrong? I can sense that you’re really unsettled about something.”

“I… I… Nighty you… Y-you’re here. We… This is… I don’t…. I don’t understand how this could have happened…” Dream responded, desperately trying to remember what he’d been doing before he had woken up in bed with Nightmare as he should be, and not the dark shadow that he’d become. Tears coursed down his face as he shifted forwards and hugged the other tightly, feeling himself shaking a little.

“Woah! Hey! Of course I’m here, where else would I be? You begged me to sleep with you in your room like… Three hours ago? What… did… Did you have a nightmare? I-I’m sorry, I hadn’t realized that I.. My powers could affect you while we slept… They haven’t before… Wh-why are you crying? Hey… It’s okay… I’m right here, starlight…” Nightmare soothed, sounding and feeling a little bit panicky as the other started to rock him back and forth a little.

“I… I…” Was everything he remembered nothing more than a bad dream? The destruction of The Tree and Nightmare’s fall? Desperately fighting and fleeing from Nightmare until he had somehow stumbled into an alternate universe, drawn to Ink, desperate for help and his instincts guiding him to a being who had the power and ability to do so. Fighting and growing by Ink’s side against Error, against Nightmare until… Until… But there seemed to be a strange… Fuzziness to those memories. Drea felt terribly disoriented and confused as he tried to piece together what was going on, unless it had all been one very realistic bad dream?  "I… I did have a really bad dream… I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to hold you and you to hug me. I didn’t mean to upset you Nightmare. I love you very much and I always will, no matter what.“

Nightmare put his hands on Dream’s shoulders, pushing him away a little before grabbing his chin with one of his hands, making the positive guardian look him directly in the eyes as he spoke, voice quiet and full of genuine love, his aura reflecting the genuine as well  "Thank you, Dream. I will always love you as well. Do you want to talk about your bad dream, or do you just want to cuddle? I know that you’re really unsettled.”

“I… I-I just want to cuddle with you. I don’t want to think about it.” Dream responded with a decisive nod, flashing the other a bright grin that he did not at all feel like, but knowing that he needed to pull himself together - as he had worried Nightmare far too much as it was.

“Alright, I like cuddling you - even if the bed’s a bit small for the both of us together like this.” Nightmare responded, a loving smile appearing on his face as he laid back down on the bed, gently pulling Dream down with him, snuggling into the other and asking quietly “Is there something else that I can do to help you calm down?”

Dream thought about that for a couple of moments before shaking his head and turning off his eye lights, answering after a moment “Just… Please don’t leave me. I-I know that you like to get up a bit earlier than I do sometimes, but I… part of the bad dream was because I… I couldn’t reach you and if…” Dream stopped talking for a couple of moments before hiding his face into Nightmare’s sleeping shirt “… Sorry. I just realized how childish and clingy I sound.”

“You’re not being childish. I know that you’ve been having bad dreams every night for a week… And you still won’t tell me about them…” Nightmare responded, a worried frown appearing on his face as he pulled Dream in closer, pressing a couple of gentle kisses to the other’s cheeks. One of his hands came up to gently wipe away the positive guardian’s tears “I know that those bad dreams have been really bothering you. I hope that you’ll tell me what’s upset you so much, but I promised that I won’t push you and I intend to keep that promise.”

“I… I just… I don’t want to worry you.” Dream responded earnestly. He knew that Nightmare struggled to shake off some of the insults that the villagers called him… And to voice the fact that he’d been having bad dreams where the other had turned into the horrifying demon that the villagers had accused him to be would really upset the other. Besides, it’s not as if any of that had actually happened, right? “They’re just bad dreams. I’m sure that they’ll pass sooner or later!”

“I.. Okay. As long as nothing’s causing them? Like… Like when there was that… Stranger following you around the village and watching the house about a decade back? You were jumpy and getting bad dreams then, too…” Nightmare prodded, still looking so worried and caring.

So different than the corrupted creature that had masqueraded as his beloved in his bad dreams for the past week - which he was starting to remember bits and pieces of, now that he was starting to wake up a little bit more. “No. There’s no one bothering or watching me like that in the village again, I promised that I’d speak up if I was worried about that happening again sooner, because things had started to go… really far before you made me talk to you about it…” Dream promised earnestly, a genuine smile appearing on his face - it was much shakier than the fake expression, but he was feeling much calmer now.

Nightmare visibly relaxed at that, giving Dream a small smile in response “Okay… Do you want to try to stay awake for a little bit, or do you think that you’ll be able to sleep peacefully if we settle down to sleep again?”

“No… I-I don’t think that the bad dream is waiting for me again. Talking to you always chases them away, Nighty.” Dream responded, as he snuggled into the other, allowing himself to relax. The other’s steady thrum of magic and rising and falling of his chest helped to lull him off to sleep, the other’s arms warm as they were wrapped around him.


	5. Power Suppression

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Error and Nightmare wake up in cells facing one another, in an AU that neither of them recognize.

Nightmare knew as soon as he opened his eyes that something was terribly wrong. For one thing, he could see clearly out of both of his eye lights, the second… He felt lighter than he had in a very long time. The third thing was that it was very dark wherever the hell he was currently. The last thing that he remembered was fighting Dream and Cross - the two of them escaping to places unknown as he and Killer just barely failed to go through the portal after them. Once he got his hands on Cross, that miserable fucking traitor was going to regret ever betraying him - then again, he’d been fucked around with by that Gaster of his timeline, so his decisions might not have entirely been his own.

He stood up, moving towards the pale source of light, stumbling a little and hissing as he realized that the source of the light was a magical force field that when touched - forced him back a couple of inches and stung.

In the pale white, flickering light, Nightmare glanced down at his hands, realizing that he was no longer covered in the tarry substance of the corruption that the negative apples had. His bones were white and he was… He was wearing his original outfit. Including - as he felt the top of his head - the golden circlet with the crescent shaped cut in the middle of it. Panic filled him as he tried to summon his tendrils, feeling something shift just outside of his full perception and agony shock through him, originating from his neck, wrists and ankles, driving the lord of darkness to his knees. He choked back the shriek of agony - not wanting to give his captors the satisfaction of hearing him react in pain.

Once the pain faded from his body and Nightmare could move - the fallen guardian of Negativity sat up, scowling as he tried to figure out just where he was. From what he could see of the hallway outside of his cell, all he could see was a white hallway in black trim. The color of the force field was strange - as in every AU he’d visited that had such magical tech, they were either light blue if they were a tale or a swap based AU, or red if he was in a fell or swapfell based AU. Occasionally it would be a light shade of violet in swap fells, but that was unusual. But never this over-bright white color.

Nightmare studied the magical shackles on his wrists, using the light to get a better look at them - noting the intricate carving of the runes that kept his powers suppressed and locked away. At least it meant that they hadn’t somehow taken the powers of the many apples he’d consumed from him. He had his power, though it was out of reach. He sat down and looked at the shackles on his ankles, finding much the same. Both sets of restraints were completely smooth - there wasn’t a groove or keyhole revealing a weakness that he might be able to exploit in trying to get them off. Not that there was much in the cell he’d been locked into - just a small cot fused to the floor, the material dark in color - and when Nightmare dragged the mattress he’d been laying on, it revealed to be the same flat black color as was on the trim on the walls outside.

Nightmare could very dimly sense someone close by. Having literally nothing else to do - and deciding that he was going to see if there was someone in the cell facing his - he called out (hating how light and soft his voice sounded in this weak form) “Hello? Is there anyone else down here?” Perhaps he could play the innocent, confused victim and con his captors into letting him go. Then he would make them suffer for daring do this to him. He knew for a fact that Dream hadn’t done this to him - for one thing, the other would never think to suppress his powers - and the second is that the other would be hovering at his side, waiting for the very moment that he woke up in order to try to talk.

He heard an agonized groan from the cell opposite of his, and the familiar figure of one glitchy outcode came into view. “WhErE tHE fUCk Am I? WhO aRE yOu?”

“I have no idea where we are - as for who I am… I’d rather not get into that right now.” Nightmare responded, not wanting to reveal who he was to Error just yet. “What’s important is - can you access your powers? I have some sort of… Restrictors on me that keep me from trying to teleport out of here - and there’s nothing in here that I can use to try to get out of them, either.” He’s never seen such an achromatic place like this before. Is… Was he dragged to an AU he’s never known before? By who, and for what purpose? Nightmare hated the lack of control, but was doing his best to suppress his emotional reactions. He won’t give them the satisfaction. “I have just a little bit of my passive abilities, but nothing more, as far as I can tell.”

“Of coUrSe I-” Error started, voice rough and staticky with irritation, before pausing for a moment. Less then a second later, the other let out a glitched yell of pain, and Nightmare noted that the other had fallen over backwards, completely stiff his arms and legs stiff and straight.

The lord of negativity waited patiently for the other to wake up, tapping one of his bare feet against the cool tile, keeping a regular beat inside his mind, finding that it took the other at least ten minutes to start to react again, groaning and shuddering on the floor, and another five to struggle up into a sitting position “I am sorry - I had just been about to warn you not to try to use your powers too much - the cuffs that they put on both of us caused me pain when I tried to use them.” He wasn’t really sorry - but pretending otherwise would hopefully encourage a sense of camaraderie between the both of them - so that if the other managed to escape his cell, it was less likely that Error would leave him to rot.

“HoW cOmE I didn’t h-hear yoU scReAmIng eArLIer?” Error demanded, squinting at him through the force fields “yOu LoOk LiKe A sWaP iN stRAnGe cLOtheS? WhAt Au ArE yOU fRoM?”

“You wouldn’t have heard of it, even if I told you. None of the outcodes have ever visited my AU… Not that there’s much left of it. It was destroyed long ago.” Nightmare responded factually. He sincerely doubted that Dream would have ever brought Ink to the shattered remains of their timeline - and while he did use it as his main base, he didn’t trust any of the outcodes enough to even think about taking them there. “I… I didn’t scream when the pain hit me. I-I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of hearing me in pain.”

“fAIr eNOUgh. HoW dO yOU knOW whO I aM iF nO oNe HaS bEEn tO yoUR tIMELinE?” Error pressed, continuing to squint at Nightmare, arms crossed over his chest as he glared at him suspiciously. “I wILl fINd A wAY oUT anD tHEn I wIlL mUrdEr thE wOrtHLEss gLIitcHEs WhO cAUghT mE.”

Nightmare was about to give a version of the truth - something about Dream having visited his timeline on his own before - when both of them  heard the sound of a door opening, and two sets of footsteps.

“And I am telling you, with Overwrite and your knowledge of their powers, neither one of them has had the ability to escape, my dear friend.” A smooth, low voice that neither of the two caged and currently powerless beings recognized reassured. “Their code is unusual - it will take me time to reprogram them into more useful tools. If you would allow me to look at the negative one’s other half, I am sure that I would be able to reshape both of them. I am unsure if I can fix… Nightmare? I believe that’s what you called him? Without Dream being present as well. They are bound together in a way that I have never seen anywhere in the multiverse before.”

“And I told you, XGaster, he’s in the omega timeline, and having both of them in the same timeline will cause issues that you cannot handle easily. Dream is by far the weaker of the two of them, but his positive aura will win over your people to his side. It’s part of how his powers work - and Nightmare will be far more stubborn if we have Dream here. And Dream won’t trust me if I bring him here.” Ink responded, shaking his head a little.

Error screamed at Ink “YOU SON OF A BITCH LE-LE-LET ME OUT OF HE-HERE RIGHT NOW! G-GET THESE F-FUCKING CUFFS OFF OF ME, AND YOUR D-DE-DEATH WILL BE FAST YOU MIS-MISERABLE SQUID! I WILL TEAR APART YOUR FA-FA-FAVORITE AUS LI-LINE BY LI-LINE!” He threw himself repeatedly at the force field of the cage, as if hoping to bash through it by sheer force of will, hissing in pain with every strike.

“I had given you a chance to join our game, Error. You refused to play.” Ink responded, his eye lights, flat white circles as he stared down at the other, as the glitch trembled and thrashed on the floor. He glanced over at Nightmare, a small twitch of his lips upwards, as if feeling a pale shade of amusement. Not that the other was actually feeling anything. “You really do look a lot like Dream. You’re almost… Sweet in this form, Nightmare.” The guardian of creativity walked over, staring at him.

“Why is Dream’s trust something that you are after, friend? I can give you what it is you truly want and desire. His aura is only effective when you are in his presence, and the light emotions make you weak.” The Gaster pointed out, resting a hand lightly on one of Ink’s shoulders.

“Dream’s presence helps to bolster my positive popularity, which allows me greater access to the AUs that we visit. He is also the best healer I have encountered in the entire multiverse and his gentle nature makes him an excellent companion.” Ink answered. “Why he seems to think that Nightmare can be redeemed, I do not know. But his hope to find a cure for whatever happened to him - as well as his belief that Nightmare can be redeemed is what keeps him going. You take either of those things away from him and Dream will shatter.”

“Oh, please do elaborate on that.” XGaster responded with a small smirk playing on his face as the two of them started to walk.

Nightmare growled, his eye lights flashing in anger as he stepped closer to the bars of the cell he’d been forced into “If you dare touch Dream, I will rip you apart. You can only hold me here for so long. Dream may trust you for now, but I know him better than you ever will, you arrogant, soulless bastard. If he ever hears so much of a hint of what you’ve done in this world, he won’t ever trust you again… And Cross is with him in a place where you can’t directly approach the both of them to keep Cross silent.” Despite his irritation, the fallen guardian was smirking a little. The truth would will out sooner or later - and there was no way that Ink would be able to keep Dream out of this AU - and the other would be drawn to his presence. He just needed to be patient.

Error started to thrash against the force field again, screaming obscenities until he suddenly went down hard, his eye sockets covered in errors - his whole body glitching out wildly. A loading bar popped up over the other’s prone body, ever so slowly inching towards full.

Gaster and Ink left the both of them, unconcerned. “With his magic suppressed, I suspect he’ll be rebooting for hours. Just after a reboot is when he’s most malleable.” Ink supplied, staring at the prone form of his long-time enemy.

XGaster nodded “Very well, let us continue speaking, while I show you what I have added since the last time this world was RESET.” The pair of them were silent until after they vanished out of Nightmare’s sight and hearing range.


	6. GB AU part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream wakes up to an argument, and realizes that he fled to the wrong au. Can he talk Cross into letting him go?

Dream woke to the sound of three voices arguing, low and fast, their emotions tense, fearful and uncertain and mixed with confusion. But he couldn’t focus on what they were saying, as he felt as if his bones had been pulled from him one by one, soaked and acid, before being roughly shoved back. He was low on magic and curled around something in a very uncomfortable position. The guardian of positivity frowned at himself, took in a couple of deep, calming breaths and did his best to focus through the slowly receding pain to try to listen in on who was arguing. Their magic was somewhat familiar to him - but not in a good way.

“-and I’m telling you, one of us needs to teleport to boss, right now, and tell him.” A rough, growling voice muttered angrily, sounding as if he was a couple of feet to Dream’s left.

“Yeah, and I don’t want to be the one to do it! You know how tetchy he gets whenever his name is mentioned around him, and he’s going to lose his shit if he finds out that the ball of fuckin’ sunshine is actually here. Why the hell he’s here, I don’t know.” A second, lighter voice hissed from a little bit further away.

“I didn’t realize that Sunny D knew where this timeline was. You’d think that boss would have picked a timeline that none of the Star Shits had been to before, given that our main base is here.” A third voice purred “And wouldn’t it be better if we just dragged him to boss in the first place? Because if we go and tell Nightmare that he’s here, there’s a chance that Dream will wake up and teleport off. And then Boss’ll really be pissed.”

“I can barely sense him though. Which means he’s probably got like… Next to no magic. Do you really think he could walk in that state, much less create a portal to leave?” The first voice pointed out musingly.

Dream tried not to flinch as he realized that he’d… He’d come back to Dreamtale - and the memories of why he had instinctively fled to his former home caused the positivity guardian to try to suppress a violent flinch and a sob - Horror, Killer and Dust hadn’t seemed to notice that he was awake yet - and he needed to make sure that the tiny, abused children that he’d rescued would be safe. And they really weren’t here. He also realized that he had somehow managed to turn back into his original form - but at least he wasn’t dog-shaped. At least it wasn’t immediately apparent that

Cross spoke up - because of course all four of Nightmare’s main minions were crowded around him - saying quietly “What I want to know is why are his clothes shredded? I’ve never seen his boots torn up like that - and his pants are all messed up as well.”

“… That’s a good point. Welp, something to ask him when he wakes up. Heh, we might be able to have a bit of fun with him before we tell boss.” Dust responded, and Dream could hear the sadistic glee in the other’s voice, not just in the other’s magic. There was a dull smacking sound of bone against bone and Dust hissed “Oww! What was that for?”

“Don’t be weird and gross, Dust.” Cross scolded, discomfort in the other’s magic as he spoke “I think that earns you the dubious honor of telling bo-”

Dream could hear the ringing of an interdimensional cell phone, and Dust answered “What’s up, boss? … Right now? I mean, we kind of… Okay! Okay fiiine… Yes boss… Recon and report. By myself or-? Got it. Yes boss.” It felt like an eternity of silence before Dust spoke up again “Well, Horror and I have a mission - and he wants us to leave now… And there’s the portal. I’ll tell you the details once we get through. Have fun sorting this mess out you two.”

The positivity guardian heard two sets of footsteps walk away from him, before their magical signatures vanished. Despite desperately wanting to try to get up - to try to move into a less vulnerable position, Dream was hoping that the two remaining Bad Sanses were still under the impression that he was asleep, and might give him an opportunity to flee with the very young Sans and Papyrus he was still holding carefully. Thankfully, both of the pups were still asleep, snuggled into one another and nestled in his arms. He didn’t dare to even activate his eye lights in an attempt to see what was going on, as that would reveal, if one of them was looking at his face, that he was awake. He knew that he would have exactly one chance to try to escape with how little magic he had - and the fact that both Killer and Cross were efficient hunters.

“Soo… Let’s fight to see who has to tell boss. Loser has to give him the news.” Killer suggested.

“No. For one thing, Nightmare doesn’t like it when we fight each other… Besides, you’ll be the one going to speak to him anyways.” Cross responded.

“Are you implying that you’re stronger than me, Crossy-boy?” Killer hissed, irritation and indignation spiking in the other’s magic.

“Yes. I know for a fact that I’m stronger than you are, Killer.” The monochromatic skeleton answered back, supremely unconcerned about his teammate’s annoyance.

“Then put your gold where your mouth is, you shit!” Killer growled, and Dream felt the other’s irritation turn into rage and bloodlust.

“I don’t need to prove myself to you, Killer.” Cross responded back, his voice still calm. “One of us needs to tell Nightmare that Dream - and whoever he’s got with him - is here and I don’t trust you not to try to stab one of the three of them while I’m away. You’ve stabbed prisoners out of boredom before, and I don’t think that Nightmare would take it well if you were hurting Dream. He’s…”

“Really strange when it comes to that particular Star Shit? Yeah. I’ve noticed that much. I’ve been working with Boss for a lot longer than you have… And what do you mean by whoever’s with him? It’s just Dream.” Killer growled, confused.

“He has two beings with him. A Sans and Papyrus who I’ve never sensed before. He’s hidden their magical presence with his own, but I can sense them.” Cross answered back.

“… Both of them must be really tiny, if that’s true. Because I certainly don’t see another Papyrus laying down next to him, and they’re always tall… If they’re full grown.” Killer grumbled “Fine. I… I’ll go talk to boss.”

Moments later, Dream felt the tell-tale flash of magic distinctive to teleportation. With only one of the bad Sanses watching him, now was definitely the time to-

“I know you’re awake, Dream. I noticed the difference in your breathing pattern, earlier.” Cross spoke up, his voice suddenly much closer and more directly above him than normal. “So you might as well get up.”

Dream hesitated for a moment before turning on his eye lights and looking up at Cross - startled that the other was kneeling directly in front of him. After a moment of awkwardly starting at the other’s mis-matched eye lights, the older skeleton shifted his hold on the sleeping Sans and Papyrus in his arms so that he was holding both of them with one arm, using the other to slowly and painfully push himself up into a sitting position, a quiet groan of pain leaving him as his joints snapped and popped a little bit as he straightened his spine, staring blearily at the other. He didn’t know Cross very well - but he knew that Ink did… And that the other had counted the other as a friend. Perhaps he could reach out to the other, while he had the chance? Keeping his voice low so that he hopefully didn’t wake up the sleeping children, he pleaded quietly "Please let me leave, Cross. I hadn’t meant to come here - I’ve… I’ve never spoken of this place to Ink or Blue, ever and I… It’s vanishingly unlikely that I ever will. Please I-I’ve got to get the little ones to safety!”

Cross stared at him, the other’s eye lights widening and Dream could feel the horror and confusion within the other’s soul as the younger skeleton seemed to be at an utter loss. “I… What… What the actual fuck happened to you, Dream?”

Ah. Time to lie. “I… N-nothing much, I just… Uhm…” Dream looked down at himself - Cross’s horrified staring was… Oh no. His clothes were ripped to shreds, and since he’d moved, his cape wasn’t covering much anymore. A bright gold blush appeared on his face and with his free hand he tugged his cape over himself (and the pups) “I… Cross please…”

“No. Seriously. What the hell happened?” Cross growled, his eye lights intense “What did he do to you? I can sense traces of his magic on you, but I wasn’t going to say anything in front of the others. What the fuck did a Gaster do to you?” The other grabbed one of his shoulders, shaking him a little.

The sudden movement startled Dream, causing him to flinch and curl in on himself, and the rough movements forced a whimper of pain to leave him “I… P-please… I-It’s p-probably n-not as bad as you th-think! I just… The G-Gaster b-briefly experimented on m-me but he c-couldn’t keep me contained for v-very long. I f-found the Sans and Papyrus in a cell and broke them o-out and… I was r-running on instinct and I h-had only enough m-magic to ‘port us to one AU and I… I-I went home… I d-didn’t remember at the t-time that it’s n-not safe here anymore. It ha-hasn’t in a long time but I… I-I fled here to Nigh…” Dream immediately stopped talking, shifting his hold on the pups again, so that he was holding them in his arms again “But that’s not important. What is, i-is getting the children to safety. Please let me leave so I can get them to safety. I-I’ll bring you along too! S-so you won’t get into trouble for letting me escape.”

“I… I don’t…” Cross responded, his facial expression - half hidden by his scarf - showing absolutely nothing. But the other’s emotions were unsettled and unsure - as if the other was trying to figure out what to do. The other’s gaze fixated on the tiny bone puppies in Dream’s arms. “Why do they look like that?”

“Oh… You’ve never been to a Baby Blaster Beast AU?” The guardian of positivity asked, blinking a little in surprise “Or even a Gaster Blaster Beast AU before? I… I’ll explain but please - at least let me open a portal to set the children in a safer world, Cross?”

“No, I haven’t… they’re… So small…” The monocrhomatic skeleton responded, his red and white eye lights still focused on the very young skeletal creatures in Dream’s arms. “I… I can see why you’d want to protect them. I… I can’t open portals, you know. And I’m not going to try to summon that treacherous, two-faced bastard. He’d probably force you to try to put them back in their own au… Despite the fact that you’ve clearly just rescued them from somewhere terrible because he doesn’t like to interfere or some bullshit like that. But… I… Sure, I’ll help you.” There was a strange emotional flutter in the other’s magic that Dream wasn’t aware enough to identify, much as the positivity guardian tried to keep as in tune with his surroundings as possible.

“I know that… But I can - but you’d have to not attack me while I’m trying to summon up enough magic to do that, so I don’t lose concentration.” Dream explained, hope building in his chest. He had no idea how much time he had left before Nightmare showed up - it depended on how reluctant Killer was to talk to the fallen guardian. But he suspected that he didn’t have much left.

“I… I wouldn’t attack you, not when you’re carrying helpless children. I’ve… Done a lot, for Nightmare. But I… That’s a line I’m not going to cross.” The monocrhomatic skeleton responded, nodding definitively as he stared at the tiny skele-pups.

Dream could sense a rising determination within the other, and despite the seriousness of the situation, he couldn’t help but chuckle a little, commenting “Nice pun, Cross.” If he were less tired, he might have tried to respond back, but he was already focusing on making a portal.

The other groaned, burying his face in his hands “I didn’t do that on purpose! The others make way too many cracks about my name as it is! I’m just glad that none of the others heard me say that. Otherwise I’d never hear the end of it.”

Dream smiled kindly at the younger skeleton before responding “I’m sorry to hear that the others tease you for your name, but again, tha-” His eye lights widened as he felt his magic rush out of him and fizzle. “No… Why… Why can’t I open a portal? I.. I sh-should be able to… To do so…” He felt himself falling over again, Cross’ arms wrapping around him as darkness started to envelop him.

The positive guardian heard Cross speaking, his voice apologetic, and the feelings in the other’s magic and soul guilty and determined “I’m sorry… But I can’t go against Boss. I need him to fix my timeline.”

“But… You… You promised to help me…” Dream responded, a look of betrayal flashing across his eyes. He should have known better than to hope that one of Nightmare’s people really would help him - but Cross had genuinely seemed intent on wanting to help the children… “But… Please… At least make sure that the children are safe, Cross. I don’t… I don’t know what he’ll do to them.”

“I… I’ll try. That I am genuinely promising you. I don’t know how much I’ll actually be able to do.” Cross promised, grabbing Dream as he stood up, the shorter skeleton’s feet dangling a couple of inches in the air. “I’ve just gotten a text from Killer. Nightmare’s expecting you.”

Dream struggled against the other’s grip, kicking the taller skeleton, but the violent movements caused more pain to course through the positivity guardian “No… No! I won’t… Won’t be captured without a fight…”

“You barely have enough energy to keep conscious, much less to actually fight me. You won’t be able to escape, even if you manage to get away from me.” Cross pointed out, his tone of voice almost sounding as if he was thinking that Dream was being unreasonable. “If you continue to fight like this, you’ll wake up the kids - and you don’t want to upset or distress them, do you?”

“A-As if the three of them being captured by Nightmare will be any better.” Dream hissed, still struggling and fighting against the other as best as he could - kicking at Cross’s knees, trying to get the other to fall over - or at least stumble, barring that. He also felt no shame whatsoever in shifting a little and biting one of the other’s arms that was restraining, unaware at first that he was growling .

“Ouch! What the fuck?” Cross swore, startled that the other bit him - he hadn’t thought that the guardian of positivity was one to do something like that “You bit me!… And you’re growling.” He was… Really surprised. He’d never seen the other in such a… Feral? State. He’d expect this sort of thing out of one of the Fells, but not Dream.

“You’re trying to capture me, and it’s one of the few ways I can fight back.” Dream hissed. He needed to save every bit of what little magic he had left for the teleport out to a different AU, which was why he wasn’t trying to use his magic on the other. The positive guardian was continuing to hold the sleeping skeletal puppies as gently as he could, not wanting to wake them up.

Cross yelped again as Dream continued to bite him and growl, teleporting into Nightmare’s castle “Oww, fuck! Stop that!”

“{NO!}” Dream growled in Hands, unaware that he was doing so, his form shifting and cracking, warping and prompting pained whimpers from the frustrated guardian as he was forcefully turned back into Gaster blaster beast form, shrinking to half the size of the Sans-pup, who was ten inches snout to tail.

Cross cursed colorfully in shock, using his gravitational magic to hold all three of the small dog-things before they crashed to the floor. He scooped them up in his arms and headed straight to Nightmare., making sure to wrap all three of them up in Dream’s cape, grabbing the stubborn guardian’s crown just before it hit the ground as well. Not a single damn thing about this situation made a single bit of sense. Hopefully someone would explain. He felt three squirming lumps in the cape and murmured quietly in hands “{Settle down, would you? The kids won’t be hurt. That much, I did earnestly promise, Dream. As for what happens to you, that’s Nightmare’s decision, not mine.}”


	7. Don’t Let Them See You Cry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream has been trying to heal the sick for three days, and is close to passing out from exhaustion

Three days. Three exhausting, miserable days. He’d been doing all he could to help the villagers - a plague had come through the small village, having been spread by a passing traveler, who was just as miserably sick as everyone who had caught the illness. The illness was transmissible between humans and monsters - which was unusual, in Dream’s somewhat limited knowledge of illnesses, and spoke of more of a communicable curse, rather than a true sickness of one kind or another. Dream had been doing all he could to heal the sick, or at least to bring them comfort - working non-stop since the moment that the two humans had first shown up and literally dragged him away from Nightmare who had been sleeping peacefully at the time, keeping him quiet with a hand wrapped around his mouth, and a plea to “Stay quiet and let us explain!” which he had.

But Dream had been unable to go back to the tree - or to see his other half in that time, worked down to the metaphorical bone and trembling with exhaustion. All he wanted was to go back to Nightmare and curl up and sleep… Especially as several of the humans and monsters who he’d been trying to keep alive had died anyways. The monsters having just finished fading into dust before him, the humans souls floating above their bodies and shattering apart as they drew their last breath.

Several members of their families were glaring at him, as if this was somehow his fault. Tear tracks were clear on their faces, and all of them were quite distressed… And he could only do so much to soothe their ragged pain - particularly as he was running very low on magic. He needed to sleep as there wasn’t enough positivity in the village for him to draw on to continue to help anymore. He started to walk carefully towards the door, trembling with exhaustion when one of the mortals spoke up, voice full of anger, grief and spite “Where do you think you are going? You can’t leave! We’re still sick and dying here!”

“I… I need to rest.” Dream responds, doing his best to continue to stay positive and some semblance of cheerful - which he did not at all feel. “I will be back as soon as I can, to continue to help.”

“We… You couldn’t help my sister! Why did you let her die, but keep the others alive! It’s not fair! You… You p-promised to help! And all you’ve done is let them continue to suffer! It’s not fair that you and that thing can’t get sick, while we all suffer and die!” One of the humans hissed, full of a terrifying sort of rage as they charged at him, looming over the little guardian.

Dream shrinks down a little, trying to reduce some of the human’s anger - flinching a little and shrinking down, staring fearfully up at the other, robbed of his voice as he took several steps backwards, shaking a little “I… I d-didn’t let any of them die… I-I really did t-try to save everyone… B-but I have… H-have to rest. I c-can’t help anyone else if I’m t-tired.”

“Bullshit! Neither one of you really get tired! I’ve heard the stories of what you both are! Some sort of godlings protecting the sacred tree. Tireless and powerful beyond measure! And yet you can’t save anyone! All you do is -” The human hissed, lifting Dream up and shaking him a little, glaring at him.

The human abruptly stopped speaking because Nightmare had suddenly appeared at the door, pulled Dream out of the human’s grasp with magic and pushed his mate behind him protectively “So this is where you’ve been for the past few days. I’ve been worried… And I’m guessing that they haven’t let you out of this place since they dragged you?”

The positive guardian nodded, on the brink of tears, clinging to Nightmare and shaking a little “Y-yes… I a-asked them to tell you where I was but I… I guess they didn’t have anyone to spare to send you. A couple of the v-villagers dragged me away when you were asleep. I c-couldn’t speak or I would have called out to you.”

The look on his childhood friend’s face hardens a little before the expression clears, and he smiles a little at him “I see. I’m not mad at you, Dream. Let’s go home. I know that you’re exhausted. Once you’re fully rested, we’ll both come back and I’ll help you tend to the sick.” He pulls Dream in close and presses a light kiss to the other’s teeth as he teleports them off.

As soon as they are at the base of the tree, alone but for the two of them, Dream clings tightly to Nightmare, sobbing into the other’s chest, trembling “I… I c-couldn’t s-save them. Th-they’re dying and I… I d-don’t know if a-any of the s-sick will survive! A-and then… The-then…” He couldn’t continue talking, as he’d been terribly frightened that the human would have tried to hurt him in their anger. As he’d been so low on magic, Dream wouldn’t have been able to defend himself.

“I could sense your fear and distress - that’s how I was able to find you, actually. Don’t worry. I’ll come with you the next time, alright? So that when you start to get tired, I’ll be sure to take you back here, where we can rest safely. I won’t let them overwork you like that again. Okay?” Nightmare murmured, holding him tightly and continuing to rock him back and forth, soothing his distraught mate.

“O-Okay. Th-thank you Nighty. I d-didn’t mean to go to pieces like this.” Dream managed out, wiping his face clean of his tears.

“Hey… It’s alright to cry in front of me. We were created for each other, as well as to protect the tree, remember?” Nightmare pointed out gently “Although… I… Please promise me one thing?”

“Sure, anything.” Dream responded earnestly, leaning exhaustedly into the negative guardian.

“Never let them see you cry? I think that they’re under the impression that you’re unable to feel negative emotions and I… I don’t want them to see you when you’re vulnerable like this.” his beloved mate asked, violet eyes full of concern.

Dream blinked a little bit in surprise at the other’s request, but he nodded “I… Okay. I try to put my best face forwards when we talk to the mortals anyways, but sure. I promise.”

“Thank you.” Nightmare responded, smiling softly “You should sleep now. Don’t worry, I’ll keep watch.”

“Okay… Thank you moonbeam…”

“You’re welcome, starlight.”


End file.
